


Slashes Are For Romance

by phidari



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Papyrus, Canon Sans, Characters Reading Fanfiction, Characters Writing Fanfiction, Gen, How Do I Tag, Metafiction, Post-Neutral Route (Undertale), Tag Wrangler Alphys, Wranglers Are Not Adult Supervision
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-04 14:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5337116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phidari/pseuds/phidari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Papyrus finds Ao3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slashes Are For Romance

**Author's Note:**

> The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons or events is purely coincidental.
> 
> That said, the tagging advice presented herein _is_ real.

"Sans! Sans, come look at this!"

Sans didn't even glance away from the TV. Not until Papyrus strode out into the living room and stood right in his line of sight.

"Sans!" Papyrus said. "The acoustics in our house must be off. You didn't hear me calling for you!"

"Yeah, I did. I just didn't feel like getting up."

"Argh!" Papyrus gestured in frustration. "Come on, come on! You have to see what I found!"

Papyrus grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him off the couch, up the stairs, and into his room. He plopped him down in front of the computer and folded his arms smugly. "You see?!"

Sans looked at the page open on the web browser. The header read _1-20 of 1948 Works in Undertale (Video Game)_. "What about it?"

"We're famous! On the internet! Famous on the internet, Sans!"

Sans clicked the _Characters_ dropdown in the sidebar. "I'm more famous than you."

"I don't see how that's possible. Layabout slacker Sans versus Royal Guard captain (and only member) Papyrus?"

Sans shrugged. "Guess people prefer their slice-of-life fic. Sorry, bro. I'd give you some of mine if I could."

"Aw, Sans..."

"So this is what you wanted to show me?"

"Yes! Look at all of these stories about us! And about our friends! And about that human child who passed through here a couple of months ago! Did you know their name is apparently Frisk?"

"Wow, interesting."

"Sans, I'm going to write a fanfic!"

Sans, being a skeleton, lacked eyebrows. But he would have raised one if he'd had one to raise. "Oh, really? Show me when you're done."

"I will! Now get out of my computer chair so I can write it!"

Chuckling, Sans got to his feet and returned to the living room. This should be interesting.

 

"Done!" Papyrus placed his hands on his hips proudly despite the fact that he was still sitting down. "My masterpiece fanfic is finally complete!"

"'Finally'?" Sans repeated. "You started it like ten minutes ago."

"Ack!" Papyrus jumped. He hadn't heard Sans come in to his room. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd _locked_ the door to his room so he wouldn't be interrupted. How did Sans _do_ these things?

"Well, let me see." Sans leaned over Papyrus' shoulder to get a look. Instantly he snickered. "Think you should fix your tags, bro."

"What! What's wrong with my tags!"

"Instead of a list of characters you have THE GREAT PAPYRUS WRITES A FANFIC!, NYEH HEH HEH!, READ AND REVIEW!"

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Characters are the people in your fic. That other stuff goes in freeforms."

"Freeforms?" Papyrus would have frowned, if he had facial muscles to frown with.

"Uh, I mean additional tags. See, there, where you put WHAT DO I PUT HERE?"

"Oh."

"And, uh, you should fix your relationships too." Sans jabbed a bony finger at the screen where it read _Papyrus/Sans_.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Slashes are for, uh, romance. Kissing and stuff. Unless that's what you wrote? I'm not judging."

"What!!! No, it's not! What do I do, Sans, what do I do?!" Papyrus demanded.

"Click on _Edit Tags_ and use an ampersand instead of a slash."

"Which one's the ampersand?"

"&," Sans said helpfully.

"That doesn't help-- oh, above the seven key! Aha, I knew the great Papyrus would figure this out!" Papyrus sighed in relief. "There! All better."

"While you're in there, fix your characters."

"Yes, yes, jeez!" Papyrus paused. "Wait, how do you know so much about this?"

When he turned to face Sans, though, the shorter skeleton was gone. Papyrus shouted in frustration. "I hate when he does that!"

 

Sans lounged on the sofa, cell phone in hand, as he shot off a text to Alphys. just averted a bunch of junk tags winding up in your unwrangleds, he sent. don't say i never did anything for ya.

He opened his phone's browser and navigated to the Undertale tag. Time to open up some reader insert stories. Sans/Sans was his favorite ship.

**Author's Note:**

> I really regret the last line of this fic. It was supposed to be a gag about how "Sans/Reader" becomes "Sans/Sans" if Sans is reading the fic, but now it's totally unfunny due to this fucking fandom turning into a rotting heap of Hot Topic OCs with Sans's name and face hastily pasted on.


End file.
